This invention relates to manufactured fuel articles. It relates most directly to manufactured fuel articles using waste products as a substantial fraction of the composition. The waste products most commonly used in articles of this nature are sawdust, wood chips, coal dust, particles of charcoal, waste paper, and the like. It is known to combine these waste products, alone or in combination, with binding materials such as paraffin wax or similar, to form manufactured fuel articles.
The waste products commonly used in the manufacture of fuel articles are considered generally to be dirty. The articles manufactured from these compositions using waste products are usually somewhat fragile, in that the binding material which holds them together, typically wax, may be rather soft; and may melt in the usual burning process. While a higher melting composition may be used, such higher melting compositions may be more difficult to ignite, and so are not generally considered to offer a desirable alternative.
Lower melting waxes used as binders are easier to ignite than the waxes having higher melting temperature. However, waxes only address the degree of difficulty, as all waxes alone are generally difficult to ignite with a match. The difficulty in ignition has been treated in the conventional art in such manners as adding an igniter strip along the length of a log, wrapping the log in an easily ignited package such as paper, or the like.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved manufactured fuel article.
It is another object to provide such a fuel article which has a pleasant appearance.
It is yet another object to provide such a fuel article which is clean to touch, and pleasant to handle.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a manufactured fuel article which is relatively easier to ignite.
Finally, it is an object to provide a novel method of producing a manufactured fuel article.